Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
1:50 PM ET, February 25, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Official Google Blog:
Finding more high-quality sites in search  —  Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible.  This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update  —  In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content.  Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.
Larry Fitzgibbon / Demand Media:
A Statement About Search Engine Algorithm Changes  —  How our content reaches the consumer - whether it's through direct visits, social media referrals, apps or search - has always been important to and monitored closely by us.  We also recognize that major search engines like Google have and will continue to make frequent changes.
Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search:
Google and Search Tweaks
Discussion: TechCrunch
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Sources: iPad 2 lands in thinner body with spec bump and cameras, SD slot and higher resolution display are out  —  The Apple rumors game can be a volatile thing.  Just as we'd heard about last minute alterations to the Apple TV before it hit the market, we've gotten word from sources …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Eleventh Hour  —  I like Josh Topolsky, and I like Engadget, but this is a bit much: … Eleventh hour, my ass.  Nothing in these regards has changed in the iPad 2 since January.  Nothing.  There was never going to be a higher resolution display in the iPad 2.
Claire Atkinson / New York Post:
Google eyes UK launch of YouTube movie service  —  Google's YouTube is eager to launch an unlimited subscription service for movies similar to Netflix and Amazon and is considering starting it overseas to cut down on the competition, The Post has learned.  —  The search giant …
RELATED:
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
YouTube Has No European Movie Rental Plans
Discussion: Techland
ifixit:
MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011 Teardown  —  We got our hands on Apple's newest MacBook Pro 15" on February 24, 2011.  This is Apple's first laptop to sport a quad-core processor, and also adds a brand-new I/O technology with a Thunderbolt port.
RELATED:
ifixit:
Motorola Xoom Teardown  —  The Motorola Xoom is the first android tablet powered by Google's newest OS, Android 3.0 “Honeycomb.”  Follow along as we peek inside this scrumptious (see what we did there...) device and devour all the delicious bits of information we can gather.
RELATED:
Sean Hollister / Engadget:
Motorola Xoom rooted in two hours flat, sinister transforming exoskeleton jetpack returns in Verizon ad  —  What's the first thing you're going to do with your Motorola Xoom?  If you're Koush, the answer's clear — install your very own ClockworkMod recovery image and ROM Manager, and grant the latter superuser permissions.
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
MobileMe is officially online only  —  Expanding on the report from yesterday, a Genius (who uses Chrome interestingly) sent us this screenshot of the Apple Internal systems which shows that MobileMe is online-only now.  —  It also appears you can't currently pay for MobileMe online.
Financial Times:
Apple, Google and Spotify race to music market  —  The digital music market is set to be shaken up as soon as this summer as Apple, Google and Spotify race to deliver new services that labels warily hope may reverse a decade of declining revenues.  Each of the technology companies is taking …
RELATED:
Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Apple reportedly clarifies its cloud strategy to the music labels
Discussion: mocoNews
Facebook Site Governance / Facebook:
A Privacy Policy Re-imagined For Users Like You  —  At Facebook, we are constantly developing new experiences and features to help you control your information.  Some of our recent work includes simplified privacy settings and publisher privacy controls that let you select your audience every time you post something on Facebook.
Discussion: Neowin.net and Facebook
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Post-Optical Disc Era Gets Off To A Rocky Start With The OS X Lion Beta  —  If there was any doubt in peoples' minds that Apple intends to kill off the optical disc, it was put to rest today.  This morning's unveiling of the OS X Lion Developer Preview came with the news …
Discussion: PC World, Macworld and Neowin.net
Roger Browne / Google Blogoscoped:
Google drops reverse phone number lookup  —  One of the earliest specialist services provided by Google was reverse phone number lookup.  If you used the “phonebook:” or “rphonebook:” operators together with a 10-digit US phone number, Google would show you the owner of that phone number, unless the number was unlisted.
Thanks:steverubel
Zach Epstein / BGR:
New evidence of Android apps running on BlackBerry phones emerges  —  Mobile app developer ShopSavvy reports that its Android application has recently been tested on multiple BlackBerry devices.  BGR exclusively reported last month that RIM may be working on a solution that would allow Android apps …
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Reveals “Places” - A Social Networking Related Trademark  —  On February 24, 2011, The European Trademarks and Designs Office published Apple's latest trademark application for the word “Places” under application 009760141.  Apple has filed their trademark under four distinct International …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Amazon Web Services launches CloudFormation: Infrastructure recipes  —  Amazon Web Services on Friday detailed CloudFormation, an effort to make cobbling together cloud services as easy as baking a cake.  —  The big takeaway here is that Amazon Web Services wants this cloud computing thing to be ridiculously easy.
Elizabeth Wasserman / The Politico:
DOJ threatens to nix Google merger  —  The Justice Department has made it clear to Google that it's willing to go to court to block its acquisition of travel software-maker ITA - and Google has responded by stepping up negotiations to save the deal, a source familiar with the talks tells POLITICO.
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Andrew S. Ross / San Francisco Chronicle:
Twitter, SF Mayor Ed Lee ‘very close’ on deal  —  Twitter is “very close” to an agreement to stay, and grow - exponentially - in San Francisco, says Mayor Ed Lee.  But it's “not yet 100 percent.”  —  In an interview at his office Thursday, Lee said Twitter executives intimated last week …
Discussion: bizjournals
Bloomberg:
LinkedIn Accessible in Beijing After ‘Jasmine’ Disruption  —  LinkedIn Corp., operator of the largest networking site for professionals, became accessible again in Beijing after a disruption of more than 24 hours.  —  Service to the site resumed some time before 8 p.m. Beijing time …
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog
Consumer Reports Electronics Blog:
Verizon iPhone 4: Mind the gap, our tests show  —  The Verizon iPhone 4 has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions, Consumer Reports engineers have found in lab tests.  —  The problem is similar to the one we confirmed …
Discussion: SAI
Darlene Storm / Computerworld:
Google face search to use social network photos  —  If you are out in public, you are fair game, but how would you like it if a stranger took your picture and then ran a search to find out your name, online aliases and all the information about you via that image?
Discussion: p2pnet
Nancy Scola / The Atlantic Online:
When the Internet Nearly Fractured, And How It Could Happen Again  —  When the entire country of Egypt was forced offline by its government last month, it served as a global wake-up call that the Internet is a more fragile medium than we imagine it to be.  What happened in Egypt …
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 1:50 PM ET, February 25, 2011.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Airtable:
3 bold predictions for the future of Product Management  —  Do you know how to set up your product organization for success as you embrace AI transformation to supercharge your operations?  Learn how to win with Airtable.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Introducing the Month-Year field in Zoho Forms  —  Zoho Forms is continuously evolving to meet the diverse needs of its users.  Whether you are organizing events or managing project timelines, precise date selection is often critical.
Notion:
Get up to 6 months free of Notion with unlimited AI  —  Notion is trusted and loved by thousands of startups as their connected workspace—from building product roadmaps to tracking fundraising.  Build and scale your company with one tool!
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Fred / A VC:
Marketing  —  You asked for it Arnold and 84 others (so far).
Discussion: SAI and Seattle 2.0
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
TinyCo Raises $18 Million From Andreessen Horowitz For Mobile Gaming
Sara Jerome / Hillicon Valley:
Consumer group wants to tax Netflix to pay for rural broadband
Discussion: Techdirt, DSLreports and paidContent
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
SpamIt, Glavmed Pharmacy Networks Exposed
Discussion: Fast Company
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Google Pulls VoiceMail App in Possible In-App Payment Move
Discussion: SAI and Fast Company
 Earlier Items: 
Jon Stokes / Ars Technica:
Feature: All this has happened before: NVIDIA 3.0, ARM, and the fate of x86
Discussion: VizWorld.com
Brier Dudley / The Seattle Times:
On hiring spree, Google expands in Seattle and Kirkland
Discussion: Seattle 2.0 and The Microsoft Blog
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:
Meet the 13 Companies that Came Out on Top at Launch
Matthias Galica / ShareSquare Blog:
How Microsoft, Mobile Tag, and AT&T are Killing Consumer QR Code Scanning In Utero
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
News Corp kicks off Myspace sale process